Slipknot: Deep inside the nine

Mon 12th Feb, 2007 in Features

“For the last three years, I vowed to get to the centre of what I know I’m a part of, which is one of the greatest bands in the world today.”

Slipknot percussionist M Shawn Crahan has taken off the clown mask and has temporarily ceased hitting drums & an empty beer keg with a baseball bat to pursue other career ambitions: Apparently this one/ninth of slipknot had been “consumed” with making the band’s new DVD, Voliminal: Inside the Nine, and the man who’s known by the band’s followers, (affectionately dubbed “maggots”) as Clown, said the group’s relative inactivity shouldn’t be a source of stress: Slipknot are not down for the count — at least, not yet.

The first disc, titled Voliminal, is a 90-minute film made up of rapidly edited scenes shot on handheld digital cameras, for 28 months; during the making of Vol 3: (The Subliminal Verses) and on The Subliminal Verses world tour. This is not a slick concert film with interspersed backstage footage. Nor is it a travelogue of fantastic sights and fabulous global experiences. Said to give fans an understanding of ‘survival in the belly of the beast’ Crahan has assembled the shots into a dizzying cacophony of deafening sound and jarring imagery that’s both challenging and impossible to ignore in the bands first attempt of a documentary. I call it a documentary in the loosest sense of the term, as this is more a stream-of-consciousness look into the beast that is the Slipknot touring machine.

“People don’t understand that we’re not a normal band,” Clown explains. “We are the kind of band that — because of Slipknots magnitude, its nine people — believes in taking time off between conceptual cycles. So, we just got done with a three-and-a-half-year thing, and we played over 240 shows in 34 countries, and now, we get a break from each other — a spiritual, mental, physical break. And when we get back together, it’s a business, man.”

Slipknot plans to regroup in the fall ‘07 to begin working on new material, until then, the legions of Slipknot fans (maggots) will have to make do with Voliminal, which Clown said is more like an ‘art film’ than a music DVD.  In Voliminal: Inside the Nine viewers are taken in the studio, on stage, backstage, on their tour bus and everywhere in between as they experience the energy of a band literally living, breathing and fighting for the music they created, none of it unfolding in ways you’d expect.

Differing audiences will be both enthralled and bored by this documentary. It is fascinating in that, as interesting as this band may be, and of all the footage they must have, we spend time witnessing a pigeon in a variety of edited shots and scenes with a roadie throwing up after consuming a vast amount of Jagermeister. While most avid ‘maggots’ can understand why a rock band would have something like this included in a DVD, it is at times hard to understand the need for it.

To say this is not what I expected would be an understatement. For any viewer who had been hoping for a slightly more standard documentary with some mayhem thrown in will be disappointed. Instead, the final product is all mayhem. Watch the band as they warm up, as they screw around, and as they play onstage.

Clown admitted he’s got the directing bug now, and said he’s finishing up several screenplays and would like to get back behind the lens in the not-so-distant future. But the most powerful part of working on “Voliminal,” he revealed, was seeing himself on tape, and realizing he needed to make some serious life changes.

“I just got out of the hospital [two weeks] ago, because basically I’ve just been stressed out and not taking care of myself,” Clown explained. “The hardest thing for me in making this film was to watch myself. I got to see myself behave in situations, and talk amongst others and most of the time, friend, I didn’t like what I saw. Being in the hospital, I had a lot of time to think. And working on this really brought me into a personal realm, to take a real good look at me.”

“I saw myself be frustrated, I saw myself argue with people when it wasn’t warranted, and I can actually say I was wrong. And that was tough,” he continued. “You can’t get any of that time back. I wouldn’t change what I did, but I’m willing to now look at it and make proper adjustments. I feel very blessed to have been able to get that from something I worked on, and that’s why this film is so important to me.”

The second disk is vastly different than the first, while it may not have quite as much footage as the first, many fans will engage with this more simplistic layout. First up, it contains all of the videos that they created for the third album, including Duality and Before I Forget. The second segment is a group of interviews with each of the nine, sans masks. This interview cluster gives an inside look at the behemoth that is Slipknot. The clips humanize them, and show just how dedicated they are to the band and their vision. Lastly, there are live performances from around the globe of nine songs, including Eyeless, The Heretic Anthem, and The Blister Exists. This is a disk that takes the good and the bad and mixes it up in a big edgy metal blender. It is an outpouring from the underbelly of a band that many love to hate, while just as many love. It is a message from a band that celebrates its longevity and calls their fans ‘maggots.’ It is a set that has plenty that you will want to watch over and over, and other parts you may never wish to see again.